#Eliza brandon has the worst fate of a woman in all of austen

[bethanydelleman]

The Three Possible Fates of Fallen Women

Jane Austen offers three possible fates for women who are entangled in sexual misconduct: To be sure, it would have been more for the advantage of conversation had Miss Lydia Bennet come upon the town; or, as the happiest alternative, been secluded from the world, in some distant farmhouse.

"Come upon the town" means fall into prostitution. Now let's forget for a second how horrible Meryton is being (Wouldn't it be better for gossip if she was ruined forever?) Jane Austen has actually explored all three fates that are mentioned around Lydia Wickham.

In Sense & Sensibility, Eliza Brandon, the divorced and disgraced love of Colonel Brandon, was found by him in a sponging house, probably dying of syphilis, after falling into a life of either prostitution or becoming several people's mistress. "I could not trace her beyond her first seducer, and there was every reason to fear that she had removed from him only to sink deeper in a life of sin."

Then, in Mansfield Park, Maria Rushworth, also disgraced and divorced, ends up in a distant farmhouse with Mrs. Norris, "It ended in Mrs. Norris’s resolving to quit Mansfield and devote herself to her unfortunate Maria, and in an establishment being formed for them in another country, remote and private, where, shut up together with little society, on one side no affection, on the other no judgment, it may be reasonably supposed that their tempers became their mutual punishment."

We often think that Lydia has the worst fate, but of the three she seems to have the best. Eliza Brandon and Maria Rushworth suffered far more. All three women were failed by their male guardians/fathers and we see the three possibilities, prostitute/mistress, banishment, or married to an unworthy man. Fortunately for Lydia, her sisters will keep her from anything worse.

[bethanydelleman]

Worst Men in Jane Austen

I’ve already covered the worst Jane Austen women so for all fairness, here are the worst men. Again, I am focusing on people who do real harm through their actions or neglect. Mr. Collins and Mr. Elton, therefore, will not be on this list. Both of them are annoying and immoral, but relatively harmless. Snubbing a woman at a ball and suggesting that death would be better for Lydia are not the sort of things that can rank with this cast of characters…

 1. Mr. William Elliot (Persuasion) - This man must top the list because the language used to describe him is past anything in Jane Austen’s other works. He is “hollow and black” according to Mrs. Smith. She is biased, but she does provide a heap of evidence in her favour. I don’t blame Mr. Elliot for disliking Sir Walter, he has good reason to, but he is cruel to the woman he married for money, he encourages the Smith’s to live beyond their means, and worst of all, he refuses to help Mrs. Smith when she is both sick and in poverty. Remember, he is the executor of the will and duty bound to do so. Let us all be glad that Anne was never induced to marry him.

2. General Tilney (Northanger Abbey) - He might not have murdered his wife, but there is little else I would not put past this man. General Tilney has no interest in his children’s happiness and tries to force them to marry for money rather than affection. He screams at his eldest son for being late for breakfast in full view of a guest, he turns a young girl out of his house and will not even send a servant with her for protection. His children act so differently around him that we can be fairly certain that at least verbal abuse is something they regularly endure. Poor late Mrs. Tilney could not have had a happy marriage.

 3. Mr. Brandon & his father (S&S) - We hear of Mr. Brandons Jr. and Sr. from Colonel Brandon, who is very biased against them, but these are not good men. Mr. Brandon Sr. betrayed his duty as Eliza’s guardian by forcing her to marry his son and stealing her fortune through the marriage. This is despite knowing that Eliza wanted to marry Colonel Brandon. Mr. Brandon Jr. treated his wife with cruelty from the first and “his pleasures were not what they ought to have been” which is a super ominous line. Later, when Mr. Brandon divorces Eliza, he leaves her with a tiny allowance which is not enough for her maintenance. They destroyed this happy young girl and stole her money. Detestable. They’d be first if they didn’t both die before their book began.

 4. John Willoughby (S&S) - Obviously the foremost sin here is seducing, impregnating, and then abandoning Eliza Williams. He also admits that his flirtation with Marianne was originally meant to simply be for fun and he had no intention of marrying her. He is also incredibly selfish, forcing the distressed Elinor to listen to his huge sob story and wishing for Marianne to never be with anyone else. Unfortunately, he never really pays for his sins, beyond having to marry an out-of-humour Miss Moneybags *ahem* Grey.

 5. George Wickham (P&P) - The list of sins here is pretty long, starting with trying to seduce a fifteen-year-old girl and ending with running off with a different fifteen-year-old with no intention of marrying her. Wickham also slanders Darcy, racks up gambling debt that he will not pay, and seduces an undisclosed number of tradesmen’s daughters. Let’s just assume he’s spreading some STIs just based on sheer statistical probability at this point. How many Wickham babies are scattered around Derbyshire, Cambridge, and Hertfordshire? Wickham is slightly better than Willoughby because he does marry Lydia (after being bribed) and therefore she is saved from the fate of poor Eliza Williams.

 6. John Dashwood (S&S) - A lot of hatred for this man’s actions goes towards his wife, but he is the one who actually did the deed! John Dashwood, despite making a deathbed promise to his father to provide for his half-sisters, is convinced by his wife to give them nothing. No matter what Fanny said, John is the one who has the power to provide and he does nothing more than allow a grieving widow to stay for six months in her former home and then hope that the daughters will marry well (but not to Edward!)

 7. Mr. Bennet (P&P) - A surprise contender! Mr. Bennet exposes his wife to “the contempt of her own children”, which is bad enough, but he is also an extremely lazy parent. Jane and Elizabeth both try to correct Kitty and Lydia’s behaviour, but having no support from the only parent who knows better, they fail. Mr. Bennet should have gotten out of his library years ago and actually done some parenting. He should have listened to Elizabeth’s warning at the very least and not allowed Lydia to go to Brighton, but he values peace above his daughter’s safety and his family’s respectability. Lastly, he did nothing to financially support his family after his death. Even fifty pounds each per girl, saved since their births, could have been a big help.

 8. Henry Crawford (Mansfield Park) - Yes, he had an affair with a married woman that led to her divorce and ruin and yes, he’s a bad flirt, but Henry did not prey on young women in the same way as Willoughby or Wickham. His MO is to flirt, make a girl a little in love with him, and then skip town before he is expected to propose. There is no evidence that he ever ruined any of the girls he flirted with. He does have an affair with Maria Rushworth after she followed him to Richmond, but the narrator tells us that the exposure and ruin was a result of “her imprudence”. She exposed herself hoping that he would marry her. He’s not a good person, but he is not the worst of the bunch.

 9. Sir Thomas (Mansfield Park) – He takes over the care of his niece with all these high-minded notions of providing for her and then does nothing to actually provide. Yes, she is educated, dressed, and housed, but when it comes to introducing her to the world so she can marry, nothing is done. It seems like the long-term plan is to make Fanny into a permanent unpaid companion for Lady Bertram. He neglects his own daughters and allows Mrs. Norris to spoil them rotten. And then we have the rampant child abuse that Sir Thomas somehow doesn’t notice…

 10. Admiral Crawford (Mansfield Park) – He does not appear on page but his vicious propensities are widely discussed. The Admiral did provide a comfortable home for his orphaned niece and nephew. However, we do not know how altruistic this was since they are both rich and therefore not a financial burden. When his wife died, he took a mistress under his roof, which drove his niece, Mary, from his home. Mary also says that her aunt was miserable while married to the Admiral.

 11. Fitzwilliam Darcy (P&P) – Not the worst offender but there are some sins to atone for. Darcy, knowing Wickham’s true character, does not even attempt to expose him or warn the good people of Meryton about his gambling and profligacy. He could do something, you must imagine, without exposing Georgiana. Darcy also separated Jane and Bingley, knowing that Bingley was in love with Jane. He might have excuses, but one suspects that he might have really done it to get away from those alluring “fine eyes”

12. Mr. Price (Mansfield Park) - I have some compassion for Mr. Price. He is disabled in some way (we are not told how) from his former profession in the marines. According to some commentary I read, this means he is at least missing a limb, maybe worse. While he is certainly a drunk and a negligent father, we might imagine that he suffers from PTSD or chronic pain as a result of his military service and injury. So while I cannot forgive him for making his daughter the object of a crude joke, he is at least somewhat sympathetic.

 13. Robert Ferrars (S&S) – this is a borderline case, because Robert ended up doing more good than harm, but stealing your brother’s fiancé is pretty low. We know that Edward was by now in love with someone else, but Robert didn’t know that and from what we know of his character, he was probably trying to complete his theft of Edward’s life by taking both his inheritance and his woman.

 Honourable Mention: Captain Frederick Tilney (Northanger Abbey) – He flirts with an engaged woman and this leads to her engagement being broken off. I’d dislike him more if he wasn’t doing James Moreland a HUGE favour and opening his eyes about Isabella Thorpe’s true character. There is also no evidence in the book that he actually slept with Isabella, that was all the 2003 adaption.

Honourable Mention 2: Edmund Bertram (Mansfield Park) – He’s supposed to be Fanny’s defender but he’s just so darn bad at it. Everyone else is worse, no doubt, especially Mrs. Norris, but I blame Edmund because he knows better. He knows Fanny has no fire and does nothing to fix that. He knows Fanny wants to see the avenue at Southerton but he wants to flirt with Mary instead so Fanny misses it. He even tries to tell her that she’ll be happy living with her abusive aunt! And he sits back and pretends to read a newspaper while Henry harasses Fanny. You need to do better Edmund!

Honourable Mention 3: John Thorpe (Northanger Abbey) – He’s so slimy that you want to have a nice shower after his sections of the book, but John Thorpe doesn’t manage to do anything worse than kind of kidnap Catherine for a carriage ride and tell her a ton of braggy lies. He’s the worst, but luckily, he’s not dangerous.

Honourable Mention 4: Sir Walter Elliot (Persuasion) – He is a bad father (shocking I know, Jane Austen never has those…) but Sir Walter does not have any glaring sins like the other men. He’s described by his late wife as “a conceited, silly father.” Unlike General Tilney however, he is not actively unkind, he just tends to forget that any of his daughters except Elizabeth exist. He is also deeply in debt and this must be hurting the people he owes money to.

Honourable Mention 5: Frank Churchill (Emma) – I have a hard time with Frank. He flirts a bit with Emma but she is helped rather than harmed by his attention (it finally brought Mr. Knightley to the point). Jane is made physically sick but we aren’t sure if this is because of his behaviour or because she hates lying about her engagement. His biggest sin, in my opinion, is clearly only visiting his father to see Jane, which is a scummy thing to do, but Mr. Weston immediately forgives him. So I don’t know what to do with this guy.

Honourable Mention 6: Mr. Henry Woodhouse (Emma) – This one is again tricky. Emma doesn’t seem to really mind being stuck at home and taking care of her father. However, Mr. Woodhouse has kept Emma from living her life which is the opposite of good parenting. He can hardly allow her to have a ball he has so many concerns about drafts. Despite living very close to London, Emma has never visited her sister even for a few days! Whatever his health problems, real or imaginary, Mr. Woodhouse has clipped his daughter’s wings and I have a hard time forgiving him for it.

Honourable Mention 7: Edward Ferrars (S&S) – Only Colonel Brandon and Sir John are safe from me! Edward is a difficult hero, he showed Elinor enough attention that even her rational heart had expectations and for his sister Fanny to become worried. Yet, he was engaged the whole time. Even if he no longer loved Lucy, that isn’t an excuse to start hitting on another girl.